Don't know if anyone else feels this way, but even though Final Fantasy XIV ARR isn't a bad game per se, it just doesn't feel like the game Final Fantasy really deserved. When SE claimed they were going to revive the game and make it work I was excited and decided to dust off the original collectors edition I bought for fourteen dollars at a discount bin. Got to play through the Beta and when 2.0 finally came out I was happy just to be able to play a game that didn't feel completely disfunctional.
Now that I've come back to Heavensward and played to end game, it just feels like the entire revival attempt has resulted in a game using tired out systems, hoping that if it apes the Action MMORPG style popularized by WoW that it will keep itself afloat for a while. They've got a craft system that is just a more complicated version of the simple item factory model used to consume gathered resources, which only exists to justify the gatherers who are nothing but resource factories of their own. The only thing that matters in the game is end game, old dungeons are starting to get abandoned so new players have a harder time playing through them just like in WoW, and roulette is making people aggrivated because they are only doing them to get paid.
When I look back on it all, none of this really makes a good game as much as a familiar and playable one.
Hmm, I think you're confused with WoW. FFXIV on my server is nothing like what you described as negative points. Old dungeons are run frequently around the clock for example. I completely disagree with you on your views.
I think as with GW2 it is a nice looking game. But when it comes down to it, I just don't feel like it is a world that I want to spend time in. Just feels like a bunch of small zones with walls that looks pretty, but just a collect ten of this and ten of that. I remember being a low level and didn't travel that far and was in a much higher level zone and thought wow this looks just like my newbie zone but the mobs just happen to be higher.
Like someone said it has turned into another wow clone and like all the other mmo's out there. So you can't really fault them seeing the game failed when first came out, and now it is turning a profit. Just because our perception of depth and fun is deferent then the developers they still need to make money. And this is what people want I guess.
FFXIV 3.0 story are just getting started , the 1 raid has normal and savage (in wow terms LFR and Mythic) , 2 Primals ....and i cant speak because is spoilers but the 2 ending dungeons are one if not the best of the expansion too bad it give nothing (the dungeon is awesome!) and the other dungeon is a loresgasm , the music , the boss itself is !$!$!!$ awesome
3.1 is around the corner and will bring lots of content , 24 man raid , 1 primal , more story , new 2 dungeons , new gear sets (3 x job , 1 from new raid , 1 fron new dungeons and 1 from crafting....oh and the relic quest (legendary weapons) , plus more Gold saucer things! and moreeeeeeeeee (hairstyles? , glamour? , mount? , minions for sure!)
SE brings what others mmorpgs cant , lots of content every patch, and thats the reason i have been subbed since 2.0 w/o stopping 1 month.
Having replayed the game all the way through, I'm enjoying the Heavensward material. The story is actually good enough to make me want to watch the cutscenes more than once. I'd say the weakest point of the story was really the patch content between 2.0 and 3.0. There are cutscenes I didn't mind rewatching from the 2.0 storyline, although not nearly as many as the bulk of Heavensward's. The only real downside to Heavensward specifically would be how they put some of the aether flows that must be collected for flight into the non-story quests. I can always take doing the story quests, but there is little hope for making side quests interesting, and it just doesn't feel good at all to a person who is replaying the game. It forces the player to ignore fates and dungeon grind for the filler quests, which may not be at the same level as the player is when they get into Heavensward.
i wish they'd done more with the classes.. 1 role per class feels very cheap and boring.
But all you need to do is equip a different main hand and you have access to any role in the game. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the issue that you really have here, is that if you want to play a role, you have to level that role. You can't level 1 role and translate those levels into something else like WoW. But for me, I like it this way.
i wish they'd done more with the classes.. 1 role per class feels very cheap and boring.
But all you need to do is equip a different main hand and you have access to any role in the game. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the issue that you really have here, is that if you want to play a role, you have to level that role. You can't level 1 role and translate those levels into something else like WoW. But for me, I like it this way.
no it's more like i'd like to play a warrior and i'd like to be able to chose wether i'm tank or dps.. changing weapons or job doesn'y really help in that..
i wish they'd done more with the classes.. 1 role per class feels very cheap and boring.
But all you need to do is equip a different main hand and you have access to any role in the game. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the issue that you really have here, is that if you want to play a role, you have to level that role. You can't level 1 role and translate those levels into something else like WoW. But for me, I like it this way.
no it's more like i'd like to play a warrior and i'd like to be able to chose wether i'm tank or dps.. changing weapons or job doesn'y really help in that..
you apparently didn't get the memo - Warriors ARE dps...swap to Deliverance stance and you do as much or more damage than a Bard or Machinist I'm currently leveling a Warrior that will spend 99% of it's time doing damage and NOT tanking (open world and running old content, obviously.)
i wish they'd done more with the classes.. 1 role per class feels very cheap and boring.
But all you need to do is equip a different main hand and you have access to any role in the game. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the issue that you really have here, is that if you want to play a role, you have to level that role. You can't level 1 role and translate those levels into something else like WoW. But for me, I like it this way.
no it's more like i'd like to play a warrior and i'd like to be able to chose wether i'm tank or dps.. changing weapons or job doesn'y really help in that..
you apparently didn't get the memo - Warriors ARE dps...swap to Deliverance stance and you do as much or more damage than a Bard or Machinist I'm currently leveling a Warrior that will spend 99% of it's time doing damage and NOT tanking (open world and running old content, obviously.)
guess so.. it's been over a year since i last checked the game out. i'm not exactly following what's going on with it since then
i wish they'd done more with the classes.. 1 role per class feels very cheap and boring.
But all you need to do is equip a different main hand and you have access to any role in the game. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the issue that you really have here, is that if you want to play a role, you have to level that role. You can't level 1 role and translate those levels into something else like WoW. But for me, I like it this way.
no it's more like i'd like to play a warrior and i'd like to be able to chose wether i'm tank or dps.. changing weapons or job doesn'y really help in that..
you apparently didn't get the memo - Warriors ARE dps...swap to Deliverance stance and you do as much or more damage than a Bard or Machinist I'm currently leveling a Warrior that will spend 99% of it's time doing damage and NOT tanking (open world and running old content, obviously.)
guess so.. it's been over a year since i last checked the game out. i'm not exactly following what's going on with it since then
let me be clear - officially they are still "only" a tank - so don't expect to play a warrior as a DPS in any current content - I'm just saying they are more than capable of being played as a DPS if that is how you want to play one.
But the thing is they stopped listening to their player base.
Are you kidding me? Where do you think Alexander Savage vs Alexander Normal came from? From the player base.
RE: OP
I am not sure what you were expecting but we have a game with difficult and enjoyable endgame (raiding) and enjoyable non endgame (Alexander Normal/Experts) and to spice things up you have Experts. When 'bored' you can always do ventures/farm old EX Primals for ponies, do triple threat card games, play other games @ Golden Saucer, Chocobo Race, level ALT classes/jobs / Level new classes/jobs.
Not to mention that this game has THE most and FASTEST content updates. They are constantly having new things to do and new places to go. There are tons of side quests/jobs to do as well. Also there are THREE new jobs (vs typical MMOS 1 new class/job and 1 race per expansion).
IMHO you have unrealistic expectation for MMOS.
Not really. The issue is the industry has decided they don't want to make strong titles anymore. They just want to make in your face entertainment that goes against the slower burn and depth of advancement we had in previous generations of games. These games may get more people initially playing them, but they don't really endear themselves to people like the older vanguard and turn into these tidal washes of players coming in, consuming what they can, and leaving right afterwards.
Path of Exile was a good MMO thanks to the randomized equipment and how it encouraged problem solving and experimentation with builds. Final Fantasy XI was a good MMO because it had a more flexible class system, good lore, and put useful items and content at all levels of play.
i wish they'd done more with the classes.. 1 role per class feels very cheap and boring.
But all you need to do is equip a different main hand and you have access to any role in the game. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the issue that you really have here, is that if you want to play a role, you have to level that role. You can't level 1 role and translate those levels into something else like WoW. But for me, I like it this way.
no it's more like i'd like to play a warrior and i'd like to be able to chose wether i'm tank or dps.. changing weapons or job doesn'y really help in that..
But that's not really any different than saying I want to play a dual wielding Paladin in WoW (Well, I did). You can't. The class wasn't designed that way. Same in XIV. You want Melee DPS? Equip a melee DPS weapon. No, you won't be sporting a 2H axe. but there are still plenty of options.
i wish they'd done more with the classes.. 1 role per class feels very cheap and boring.
But all you need to do is equip a different main hand and you have access to any role in the game. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the issue that you really have here, is that if you want to play a role, you have to level that role. You can't level 1 role and translate those levels into something else like WoW. But for me, I like it this way.
no it's more like i'd like to play a warrior and i'd like to be able to chose wether i'm tank or dps.. changing weapons or job doesn'y really help in that..
But that's not really any different than saying I want to play a dual wielding Paladin in WoW (Well, I did). You can't. The class wasn't designed that way. Same in XIV. You want Melee DPS? Equip a melee DPS weapon. No, you won't be sporting a 2H axe. but there are still plenty of options.
That's not even remotely similar. The problem he's trying to address is that dungeon queues FORCE certain classes/jobs like the warrior to queue as the tank role. All he wants is the ability to queue as a DPS role even though he's still a warrior. He's not trying to get any class/job mechanics changed. Other players have already pointed out the warrior job itself is perfectly capable of DPS, the only thing standing in his way is a system assigned role.
When the class is already capable of filling a different role, what purpose is served by locking it behind an arbitrary mechanic like this?
i wish they'd done more with the classes.. 1 role per class feels very cheap and boring.
But all you need to do is equip a different main hand and you have access to any role in the game. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the issue that you really have here, is that if you want to play a role, you have to level that role. You can't level 1 role and translate those levels into something else like WoW. But for me, I like it this way.
no it's more like i'd like to play a warrior and i'd like to be able to chose wether i'm tank or dps.. changing weapons or job doesn'y really help in that..
But that's not really any different than saying I want to play a dual wielding Paladin in WoW (Well, I did). You can't. The class wasn't designed that way. Same in XIV. You want Melee DPS? Equip a melee DPS weapon. No, you won't be sporting a 2H axe. but there are still plenty of options.
That's not even remotely similar. The problem he's trying to address is that dungeon queues FORCE certain classes/jobs like the warrior to queue as the tank role. All he wants is the ability to queue as a DPS role even though he's still a warrior. He's not trying to get any class/job mechanics changed. Other players have already pointed out the warrior job itself is perfectly capable of DPS, the only thing standing in his way is a system assigned role.
When the class is already capable of filling a different role, what purpose is served by locking it behind an arbitrary mechanic like this?
Uh..... just play with friends and you can play any role you want with any job you want. All you need is 3 other people. Shit, you can go in dungeons with 4 warriors if you want. The duty finder is what it is, if they let people just go in however they want it would be a mess. People are beating some extreme primals with pally and war and it's no easy feat.
i wish they'd done more with the classes.. 1 role per class feels very cheap and boring.
But all you need to do is equip a different main hand and you have access to any role in the game. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the issue that you really have here, is that if you want to play a role, you have to level that role. You can't level 1 role and translate those levels into something else like WoW. But for me, I like it this way.
no it's more like i'd like to play a warrior and i'd like to be able to chose wether i'm tank or dps.. changing weapons or job doesn'y really help in that..
But that's not really any different than saying I want to play a dual wielding Paladin in WoW (Well, I did). You can't. The class wasn't designed that way. Same in XIV. You want Melee DPS? Equip a melee DPS weapon. No, you won't be sporting a 2H axe. but there are still plenty of options.
That's not even remotely similar. The problem he's trying to address is that dungeon queues FORCE certain classes/jobs like the warrior to queue as the tank role. All he wants is the ability to queue as a DPS role even though he's still a warrior. He's not trying to get any class/job mechanics changed. Other players have already pointed out the warrior job itself is perfectly capable of DPS, the only thing standing in his way is a system assigned role.
When the class is already capable of filling a different role, what purpose is served by locking it behind an arbitrary mechanic like this?
Uh..... just play with friends and you can play any role you want with any job you want. All you need is 3 other people. Shit, you can go in dungeons with 4 warriors if you want. The duty finder is what it is, if they let people just go in however they want it would be a mess. People are beating some extreme primals with pally and war and it's no easy feat.
I've already expressed how it would be a non issue for people playing with a guild or with friends but why require a pre-made to enjoy it? How would allowing classes with multi-role potential pick their role in the duty finder be a mess?
Alright, they really don fucked up the end game. They overly complicated the damage dealers to the point where trying to do the typical dungeon run for currency is exhausting. I feel like I'm going to vomit just after speed running Neverreap ONCE as a ninja. It's fairly obvious that the damage dealers in this game are getting exhausted from playing long before the tanks and healers are, and its frustrating that they so blatantly ignore all feedback from the English forums. The entire reason the forums have devolved into what they are is because of their negligence, and it sucks because so many of their current problems could have been avoided had they taken the feedback into consideration.
Moreover, this situation is only made worse by the fact we have a good example of a game that shows they shouldn't be pushing players to their limits in a game meant to be played for a long duration. That game is called Wild Star and it flopped hard.
I've felt the same as you have since the launch of 2.0 OP and I can't say in the two years of this games relaunch I feel that feeling has changed much. Moving from 2.1 all the way into 2.55 and finally HW I have found myself merely accepting the game for what it is rather than wishing and hoping for what it could of been. The pitfalls of most of these threads despite holding a very raw expression of ones feelings/opinion of something is responding to the WoW comparison comments.I agree I would prefer leveling a class and having several ways to play said class vs. 1 way being dictated to play it a single specific way (I.E. to max DPS you gotta get that opener son). That being said that while WoW has is quirks and its own little flair, FFXIV has beaten WoW at its own game. I really hate to break it to those people that play WoW or compare FFXIV to it, but while you get 10-14 bosses at a Exp. launch FFXIV does not experience 16+ month content droughts and 30-40% sub loss (I think? But sub loss is just the nature of themepark games since you tend to cater to a audience of somewhat lower attention span players that quickly lose interest or content buffalo's that MMO hop like its going out of style).
On top of this FFXIV has a lot of various activities to do despite theme being fluff WHILE producing meaty updates in 3-6 month intervals. One can argue on whether this content is enjoyable, has purpose and plentiful or epic in scale, one could argue but its always very polished to say the least. A quick glance at my post history would very quickly let anyone know I am NOT a spokesperson/white knight for FFXIV, but I'll be damned if I would be so bitter that I couldn't acknowledge what it does right; being a better WoW. FFXIV had a terrible launch to the extent I can call it the worst MMO launch in my recollection of MMO's since i could remember. The problem lies is the fact that not many people here who unknowingly support FFXIV for what it is right now played 1.2. I also don't expect anyone have played it due to the horrendous launch and despite playing it for free for a year, didn't shell out the sub money to play it the several months before it shut down for 2.0. While there were some glaring issues with 1.0 and even in 1.2 the game still had a ways to go, but damn was it a good place and just needed to to expand.
Despite all of this a complete rebranding and remake of the game was the best course of action for SE to take at the given time. Given the state of Square Enix at the time of the rebranding the company could not afford to "break ground" on new frontiers and redefine the MMO Genre, so instead we got a perfected WoW clone. While I didn't accept this harsh reality at first its been a slow process of coming to terms with it. FFXIV still stands as the best token grinder simulator themepark game on the market, delivering blistering fast consistent loads of more of the same kind of content in a very polished state (with a somewhat less snooze induced story for HW). You can ask the question of whether or not this is what people want as much as you want, but when you read the live letters and the questions Yoshi is asked in the interviews... Lets just say that the FFXIV playerbase is more concerned on whether they get the Vanu Vanu Dance over when PvP will actually work properly or when SE will stop kicking crafters in the balls patch by patch. At that point if I was Yoshi P then I would just assume to give the players what they want, because god damn it that Vanu Vanu dance is far more important than other glaring issues my game has.
To the OP,i was very disappointed as well. However being a long time Square fan and following the FF series like no other i have seen some interesting ordeals with this operation.
First of all i have to say i feel MOST of the problems stem from the very top,the money people who seem to know little of gaming and their player base.This is easily a fact as most everything they disagreed with they now are doing,example remaking old games.Their initial argument for remaking FFXI with better graphics and a newer engine was said to be too costly and take too much time,yet here they are rehashing old games because the well has run dry on creative new ideas.
As to FFXIV i knew it was deemed a poor effort before it even released i was following it that closely.This was nothing more than attempt at a fast money grab using the FF brand.Every system seemed like a streamlined version of FFXI,everything was less of.
Now the crafting i will say was done well however also very bland and generic in it's design.What they did on the remake was send out people to check out what players liked in OTHER games,to me that is lame,build your own dam game,if you can't then fife the people you have.Yoshi was one of these people as they lead us to believe,he simply could be a puppet to the top brass.
Square made the same mistake in FFXI as they did in FFXIV,they never took combat serious enough or just got lazy and no longer wanted to work on it or improve it.FFXI had a really good core design for combat,the best in the entire gaming market,however it failed in tweaking magic bursts and to to keep the player>player and grouping ideas solid.FFXIV went one step backwards,streamline it even more into very few selections from your sub class and feeling like a total solo game.Combat and the potency system was real bad,it made every class feel the same and healing became aoe spam.
To me it was like Square got so greedy for money they stooped so low as to try and copy WOW in it's own way with small twists on the same ideas.Last time i looked people were playing FFXI because they didn't want to play Wow,Square simply got greedy looking for bigger numbers.They are no longer the creative game studio but a copy cat studio looking for money not great gaming.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
To the OP,i was very disappointed as well. However being a long time Square fan and following the FF series like no other i have seen some interesting ordeals with this operation.
First of all i have to say i feel MOST of the problems stem from the very top,the money people who seem to know little of gaming and their player base.This is easily a fact as most everything they disagreed with they now are doing,example remaking old games.Their initial argument for remaking FFXI with better graphics and a newer engine was said to be too costly and take too much time,yet here they are rehashing old games because the well has run dry on creative new ideas.
As to FFXIV i knew it was deemed a poor effort before it even released i was following it that closely.This was nothing more than attempt at a fast money grab using the FF brand.Every system seemed like a streamlined version of FFXI,everything was less of.
Now the crafting i will say was done well however also very bland and generic in it's design.What they did on the remake was send out people to check out what players liked in OTHER games,to me that is lame,build your own dam game,if you can't then fife the people you have.Yoshi was one of these people as they lead us to believe,he simply could be a puppet to the top brass.
Square made the same mistake in FFXI as they did in FFXIV,they never took combat serious enough or just got lazy and no longer wanted to work on it or improve it.FFXI had a really good core design for combat,the best in the entire gaming market,however it failed in tweaking magic bursts and to to keep the player>player and grouping ideas solid.FFXIV went one step backwards,streamline it even more into very few selections from your sub class and feeling like a total solo game.Combat and the potency system was real bad,it made every class feel the same and healing became aoe spam.
To me it was like Square got so greedy for money they stooped so low as to try and copy WOW in it's own way with small twists on the same ideas.Last time i looked people were playing FFXI because they didn't want to play Wow,Square simply got greedy looking for bigger numbers.They are no longer the creative game studio but a copy cat studio looking for money not great gaming.
Wizardry,
FFXIV 1.0 was a big fail and tried to be like FFXI but the market cannot bare old games anymore as much as a few forum goers want to be like the old games. FFXIV 2.0 went toward WOW because its a successful MMO and made FFXIV successful as well. Whether you like it or not games do need some level of streamlining and the menu driven combat of 1.0 was bad. I played FFXI and I played WOW a hell of a lot longer and like WOW a lot up until WOTLK because it was a good setup. FFXIV is copying that old setup and knows it easier for people to adept to that vs menu driven combat.
Also a long time follower of the FF series or I can say at least a long time subscriber to FFXI and FFXIV at launch. That being said there was a lot of head scratchers when it comes to their thought process and Yoshi's thought process with FFXIV overall. I'm kind of confused about your "never took combat serious enough" comment. I agree that FFXI had one of the best core combat when compared to today's MMO's but how much do you honestly expect a 13 year old game to improve upon them? The PS2 limitations was a ongoing joke for FFXI but its very much true when you take the time to bother looking up the process. The game was not made on computers and ported to consoles like games of today, FFXI was BUILT on PS2 dev kits which while I agree was a very poor choice it doesn't change the fact they didn't expect FFXI to go on this long. Also tweaking magic bursts comment does not compute to me since when level cap increased = potency increase + massive vomit stat inflation (never really agreed with that aspect of SoA moving forward but w/e) then you are going to see magic burst/SC damage increases.
Ever since aby things have taken a turn for the worst for FFXI but it seems in the past few years after SoA has settled down a lot of big changes happened for the better. Up until this year couldn't honestly recommend people to come and play FFXI because of the unreasonable grind and needless community fragmentation. While stats and the level 99 cap have been a mess with the inclusion of ivl, things have finally stabilized at ilvl 119 bringing back the games itemization and customization options. I can't say I agree with all of FFXI changes in the past (the REM debacle that lost them a lot of their loyal playerbase) I can say the game is where it needs to be. Its has hardcore while be as casual as you want it to be, and approachable from many different angles with many things to do and pursue with the wealth of much needed Quality of life changes.
I don't disagree with your thoughts of SE being on the lack of creativity lately, but the market and their company has seen better days. FFXIV is not an ENTIRELY lost cause just yet, the reason you can't really compare FFXIV to FFXI is because it doesnt have 10+ years of content and polish. FFXI wasn't a instant cult classic hit at launch either, many people do not remember the level 50 cap and launch. Doing three events for 5+ years was your content in FFXI, I don't miss the 75 cap and I wouldn't go back. Even now Yoshi P is discussing finally expanding grand company content after 2 years of no updates and there are currently 3 major game systems being developed and I'm hoping one or more of them is going to utilize these massive empty zones.There is one major reason I still play FFXIV; in a WoW clone saturated market FFXIV still stands as the best WoW clone, in my opinion better than WoW itself. Its a combination of that and its what my friends are currently playing and we hope we wont get burned on the same grind before these new "content" systems come out.
I agree. Its tough to write in these kinds of threads due to all the emotions that inevitably seep out. As I look over my last post, I am heavily tempted to edit it out. However, sometimes its best to just live and let live. Sometimes the emotions conveyed are a critical part of the message.
I think some of us expected Yoshida to be a bit more educated in MMORPG history than he actually is. Sometime after the 2.3 release, they must have started to realize that the content they were releasing wasn't holding players, something they should have known ahead of time by virtue of WoW's release history. They then raised the level cap with the expansion. It feels like he is traveling familiar waters by making mistakes other MMORPG development teams have made and learning from those mistakes as he makes them. The problem is once these mistakes have been made, there is no going back.
I genuinely tried getting into this game. I hyped myself up for RR, got the pre-order, even got a new rig for the sweet gfx. In the end though I made it to level 6 and unsubscribed. The game is super polished and full of flavor, but to me, who is not a diehard FF fan, the game felt too ordinary to justify a serious time investment. Why play WoW with catgirls and chocobos, when you can just play WoW.
FFXIV 1.0 was a big fail and tried to be like FFXI but the market cannot bare old games anymore as much as a few forum goers want to be like the old games. FFXIV 2.0 went toward WOW because its a successful MMO and made FFXIV successful as well. Whether you like it or not games do need some level of streamlining and the menu driven combat of 1.0 was bad. I played FFXI and I played WOW a hell of a lot longer and like WOW a lot up until WOTLK because it was a good setup. FFXIV is copying that old setup and knows it easier for people to adept to that vs menu driven combat.
The failure of 1.0 had very little to do with what the current market wanted back then. There were some aspects of 1.0 that had no room in the industry like retainers and market wards, but there was also a lot more features that were supposed to be there at launch. The reason why FFXIV failed was because it was a MMO that was released half finished with the worst UI/system functionality known to man. I don't think any of the rose tinted FFXI goggle players (myself included) would disagree with the fact that 2.0+ has a beautiful and well streamlined UI/menu system.
Don't know if anyone else feels this way, but even though Final Fantasy XIV ARR isn't a bad game per se, it just doesn't feel like the game Final Fantasy really deserved. When SE claimed they were going to revive the game and make it work I was excited and decided to dust off the original collectors edition I bought for fourteen dollars at a discount bin. Got to play through the Beta and when 2.0 finally came out I was happy just to be able to play a game that didn't feel completely disfunctional.
Now that I've come back to Heavensward and played to end game, it just feels like the entire revival attempt has resulted in a game using tired out systems, hoping that if it apes the Action MMORPG style popularized by WoW that it will keep itself afloat for a while. They've got a craft system that is just a more complicated version of the simple item factory model used to consume gathered resources, which only exists to justify the gatherers who are nothing but resource factories of their own. The only thing that matters in the game is end game, old dungeons are starting to get abandoned so new players have a harder time playing through them just like in WoW, and roulette is making people aggrivated because they are only doing them to get paid.
When I look back on it all, none of this really makes a good game as much as a familiar and playable one.
I was having fun with the game till about a week ago. Now I can't even play it while my sub time ticks away. I could only play for two weeks before getting major lag spikes and disconnects. I can't even log in now.
Yeah, TokenFantasy XIV is really a boring lobby game where you repeat the same dungeons every day for "token X" to get 1 set of Armor+1 just to do it all over again next update. The game is as shallow as it can get. In combat DPS classes get "generic damage ability 1-3" and are completely inconsequential to whatever you fight.
Abilities can be put into 4 categories.
1. Reduce the Mobs healt bar by X 2. Give Mob some Effect X 3. Give Party Member Health 4 Give Party Member Effect X
If in a Final Fantasy game you kill IFRIT, the terrestrial avatar of FIRE with FIRE spells you know that you reached an all time low.
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"I am jumping in here a bit without knowing exactly what you all or talking about." - SEANMCAD
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Like someone said it has turned into another wow clone and like all the other mmo's out there. So you can't really fault them seeing the game failed when first came out, and now it is turning a profit. Just because our perception of depth and fun is deferent then the developers they still need to make money. And this is what people want I guess.
3.1 is around the corner and will bring lots of content , 24 man raid , 1 primal , more story , new 2 dungeons , new gear sets (3 x job , 1 from new raid , 1 fron new dungeons and 1 from crafting....oh and the relic quest (legendary weapons) , plus more Gold saucer things! and moreeeeeeeeee (hairstyles? , glamour? , mount? , minions for sure!)
SE brings what others mmorpgs cant , lots of content every patch, and thats the reason i have been subbed since 2.0 w/o stopping 1 month.
I had fun once, it was terrible.
I had fun once, it was terrible.
Path of Exile was a good MMO thanks to the randomized equipment and how it encouraged problem solving and experimentation with builds. Final Fantasy XI was a good MMO because it had a more flexible class system, good lore, and put useful items and content at all levels of play.
Same in XIV. You want Melee DPS? Equip a melee DPS weapon. No, you won't be sporting a 2H axe. but there are still plenty of options.
When the class is already capable of filling a different role, what purpose is served by locking it behind an arbitrary mechanic like this?
Moreover, this situation is only made worse by the fact we have a good example of a game that shows they shouldn't be pushing players to their limits in a game meant to be played for a long duration. That game is called Wild Star and it flopped hard.
On top of this FFXIV has a lot of various activities to do despite theme being fluff WHILE producing meaty updates in 3-6 month intervals. One can argue on whether this content is enjoyable, has purpose and plentiful or epic in scale, one could argue but its always very polished to say the least. A quick glance at my post history would very quickly let anyone know I am NOT a spokesperson/white knight for FFXIV, but I'll be damned if I would be so bitter that I couldn't acknowledge what it does right; being a better WoW. FFXIV had a terrible launch to the extent I can call it the worst MMO launch in my recollection of MMO's since i could remember. The problem lies is the fact that not many people here who unknowingly support FFXIV for what it is right now played 1.2. I also don't expect anyone have played it due to the horrendous launch and despite playing it for free for a year, didn't shell out the sub money to play it the several months before it shut down for 2.0. While there were some glaring issues with 1.0 and even in 1.2 the game still had a ways to go, but damn was it a good place and just needed to to expand.
Despite all of this a complete rebranding and remake of the game was the best course of action for SE to take at the given time. Given the state of Square Enix at the time of the rebranding the company could not afford to "break ground" on new frontiers and redefine the MMO Genre, so instead we got a perfected WoW clone. While I didn't accept this harsh reality at first its been a slow process of coming to terms with it. FFXIV still stands as the best token grinder simulator themepark game on the market, delivering blistering fast consistent loads of more of the same kind of content in a very polished state (with a somewhat less snooze induced story for HW). You can ask the question of whether or not this is what people want as much as you want, but when you read the live letters and the questions Yoshi is asked in the interviews... Lets just say that the FFXIV playerbase is more concerned on whether they get the Vanu Vanu Dance over when PvP will actually work properly or when SE will stop kicking crafters in the balls patch by patch. At that point if I was Yoshi P then I would just assume to give the players what they want, because god damn it that Vanu Vanu dance is far more important than other glaring issues my game has.
However being a long time Square fan and following the FF series like no other i have seen some interesting ordeals with this operation.
First of all i have to say i feel MOST of the problems stem from the very top,the money people who seem to know little of gaming and their player base.This is easily a fact as most everything they disagreed with they now are doing,example remaking old games.Their initial argument for remaking FFXI with better graphics and a newer engine was said to be too costly and take too much time,yet here they are rehashing old games because the well has run dry on creative new ideas.
As to FFXIV i knew it was deemed a poor effort before it even released i was following it that closely.This was nothing more than attempt at a fast money grab using the FF brand.Every system seemed like a streamlined version of FFXI,everything was less of.
Now the crafting i will say was done well however also very bland and generic in it's design.What they did on the remake was send out people to check out what players liked in OTHER games,to me that is lame,build your own dam game,if you can't then fife the people you have.Yoshi was one of these people as they lead us to believe,he simply could be a puppet to the top brass.
Square made the same mistake in FFXI as they did in FFXIV,they never took combat serious enough or just got lazy and no longer wanted to work on it or improve it.FFXI had a really good core design for combat,the best in the entire gaming market,however it failed in tweaking magic bursts and to to keep the player>player and grouping ideas solid.FFXIV went one step backwards,streamline it even more into very few selections from your sub class and feeling like a total solo game.Combat and the potency system was real bad,it made every class feel the same and healing became aoe spam.
To me it was like Square got so greedy for money they stooped so low as to try and copy WOW in it's own way with small twists on the same ideas.Last time i looked people were playing FFXI because they didn't want to play Wow,Square simply got greedy looking for bigger numbers.They are no longer the creative game studio but a copy cat studio looking for money not great gaming.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
FFXIV 1.0 was a big fail and tried to be like FFXI but the market cannot bare old games anymore as much as a few forum goers want to be like the old games. FFXIV 2.0 went toward WOW because its a successful MMO and made FFXIV successful as well. Whether you like it or not games do need some level of streamlining and the menu driven combat of 1.0 was bad. I played FFXI and I played WOW a hell of a lot longer and like WOW a lot up until WOTLK because it was a good setup. FFXIV is copying that old setup and knows it easier for people to adept to that vs menu driven combat.
Ever since aby things have taken a turn for the worst for FFXI but it seems in the past few years after SoA has settled down a lot of big changes happened for the better. Up until this year couldn't honestly recommend people to come and play FFXI because of the unreasonable grind and needless community fragmentation. While stats and the level 99 cap have been a mess with the inclusion of ivl, things have finally stabilized at ilvl 119 bringing back the games itemization and customization options. I can't say I agree with all of FFXI changes in the past (the REM debacle that lost them a lot of their loyal playerbase) I can say the game is where it needs to be. Its has hardcore while be as casual as you want it to be, and approachable from many different angles with many things to do and pursue with the wealth of much needed Quality of life changes.
I don't disagree with your thoughts of SE being on the lack of creativity lately, but the market and their company has seen better days. FFXIV is not an ENTIRELY lost cause just yet, the reason you can't really compare FFXIV to FFXI is because it doesnt have 10+ years of content and polish. FFXI wasn't a instant cult classic hit at launch either, many people do not remember the level 50 cap and launch. Doing three events for 5+ years was your content in FFXI, I don't miss the 75 cap and I wouldn't go back. Even now Yoshi P is discussing finally expanding grand company content after 2 years of no updates and there are currently 3 major game systems being developed and I'm hoping one or more of them is going to utilize these massive empty zones.There is one major reason I still play FFXIV; in a WoW clone saturated market FFXIV still stands as the best WoW clone, in my opinion better than WoW itself. Its a combination of that and its what my friends are currently playing and we hope we wont get burned on the same grind before these new "content" systems come out.
I think some of us expected Yoshida to be a bit more educated in MMORPG history than he actually is. Sometime after the 2.3 release, they must have started to realize that the content they were releasing wasn't holding players, something they should have known ahead of time by virtue of WoW's release history. They then raised the level cap with the expansion. It feels like he is traveling familiar waters by making mistakes other MMORPG development teams have made and learning from those mistakes as he makes them. The problem is once these mistakes have been made, there is no going back.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/247378-Constant-90002-Error
Abilities can be put into 4 categories.
1. Reduce the Mobs healt bar by X
2. Give Mob some Effect X
3. Give Party Member Health
4 Give Party Member Effect X
If in a Final Fantasy game you kill IFRIT, the terrestrial avatar of FIRE with FIRE spells you know that you reached an all time low.
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"I am jumping in here a bit without knowing exactly what you all or talking about."
- SEANMCAD
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